Working papers for next month’s SportAccord General Assembly seen by insidethegames show the sheer scale of the downsizing forced on the umbrella body for Olympic and non-Olympic sports, as a consequence of the devastating fall-out from the bombshell speech delivered last year in Sochi by Marius Vizer, the then SportAccord President.

“Rule 40” is the somewhat controversial rule of the Olympic Charter which prevents athletes who are competing in the Games from allowing their name, image or sporting performance to be used in advertising during a ‘blackout period’ (just before and during the Games) without the permission of the IOC.